Blog / Post

Go Vote This Election Day

Oct 27, 2016

With all the election coverage on television, radio, and definitely the internet, you would think that we live in a country where voter participation routinely runs in the 90% range. Sadly, according to the American Presidency Project, the highest voter turnout since the 1900’s has not exceeded 65% of the eligible population for a presidential election. In fact, from the 1970’s until 2012, it has been averaging about 55% (+/- 3 %).

Once you realize that most elections are fairly close contests (there haven’t been too many landslide victories in the past 40-50 years), it’s even more scary to think that our country’s policies and future are decided by less than 30% of the population (the “winning half” of that 55% who voted).

Imagine your office has ten workers and the boss is buying a couple of pizzas for all of you next Friday. However, if you put your name on a list by next Thursday, he'll make sure to get you some appetizers, drinks, dessert, a $100 gift card, and an extra paid vacation day. Wouldn't you sign up to be on that list?

Maybe social events aren't your thing. What if the boss made an announcement that those who sign up by next Friday can start scheduling their own working hours (can even work from home), get an extra week vacation, and be considered for a raise? No matter how many calls, deadlines, clients, deliveries, etc. you had, you'd make sure to sign up by next Friday, right?

Why don' we have the same mindset about voting? We're not talking about some extra days off, or a gift card, here. We're talking about the future of our country. The future of our kids, their children and all their descendants. Our legacy.

As every election should be, we’re again coming up on an important decision and we owe it to our country, family, friends, and ourselves to go out and vote this November 8th. At the time of this writing, early voting is going on so there is no reason to wait until Election Day and wait in super loooong lines to vote. You can even vote on Saturdays for Pete's sake, so you really have no excuse to not do it.

We're not a super PAC here. We're not going to tell you who to vote for--that's totally up to you.

Think about that. While billions of dollars are being spent in trying to persuade you to vote for this candidate or the other…once you’re inside that booth, it’s just you and your conscience in there. You have to educate yourself a bit on who these candidates are, and how they feel about issues important to you: what are the pillars that steady your conscience? Do you feel life is to be protected at all costs, or are there some exceptions? How about taxation? The role of our military, governmental oversight; the death penalty; immigration, welfare reform, education; drug enforcement, environmental issues, etc…etc..etc.

I can guarantee that there won’t be one candidate that will get a perfect scorecard from you. But once you identify those core issues of utmost importance to you, then hopefully the choice will become a little clearer for you.

Vote with your conscience and you'll know you've done all you can do from a responsible citizen's perspective.

Don’t let 30% of the people dictate your future--go out and vote on November 8th—and make sure to double-check your selections before you hit that “CAST VOTE” button.